The Kids Are Alright Really
by gah-linda
Summary: Set after 'The Kids Are Alright.' Or maybe it's during. Who can tell these days? Jackie and Hyde get back together in a way that doesn't lead them straight to disaster!


A/N One of my pet peeves about the direction that the show took after season 5 was basically that the writers ignored the character development of H/J (which, I'll admit, doesn't exactly make for wonderful comedy) and threw them back together in season 6 in such a way that OF COURSE they were going to fall apart. So…here's how they got back together, but with Donna lending the helping hand instead of Kelso. Also, you may think Hyde seems out of character, but I just think that maybe after a year of dating Jackie he could have been a big enough man to bite the bullet and say what needed to be said. You know…as though his character developed. (one shot)

**The Kids Are Alright (really)**

"You fucking dill hole! How could you just go out with that girl!" Donna raved as she stormed into the basement, empty but for Steven Hyde, who lounged on the couch, feet propped up carelessly on the coffee table.

"I thought you liked Raquel?" He didn't seem nearly as upset as she would have liked.

"I did like Raquel, Hyde. But I didn't know you turned down Jackie to go out with her! You love Jackie. Jackie loves you. You can't just ditch the girl you love for no reason!" She sat down as well, facing him on the couch.

"I had a perfectly good reason, Donna! She's been immature and childish about this whole thing!" He flipped into his Jackie voice. "'I have to choose between you and Michael, _Steven_! I choose myself, _Steven_! Just sit around and wait for me all summer while I torture you, _Steven_!'" He rolled his eyes, looking to Donna for collaboration. Instead, she slapped him.

"You SLEPT with someone else! You fucked some random skankoid nurse, Hyde! You can't expect Jackie to just get over that! You deserved to be tortured all summer, and you know it!" She was seething now. "If it were Eric that cheated on me, I would NOT forgive him as easily as Jackie was willing to forgive you! I told her not to take back your cheating ass, but for some reason she loves you. How could you just throw away a girl that loves you enough to forgive you? _You_ could barely even forgive her for accidentally calling Michael her boyfriend!"

"Why Kelso, then? Why would she have said she had to choose between us unless she just wanted to hurt me?"

"She did want to hurt you, Hyde. You deserved to be hurt. You deserved to know what it was like to see the person you love running off with someone else!"

"I can't forgive her for that. I just…" He sighed and took off his sunglasses, twirling them in his hands. "I realize I have a problem with trusting. I know that's why I cheated. But…how could she just use it against me like that? I understand if she wants to make me suffer, but doing it with Kelso is like proving that I had a reason not to trust her in the first place!"

Donna looked down at the couch, a little ashamed of what she was about to say. "It was my idea."

"WHAT?"

"Well, I mean…I told Jackie that if she was considering taking you back, she might as well consider taking Kelso back. Once a cheater, always a cheater, you know? And she defended you! After you ripped her heart out and stomped on it…she defended you. I told her to tell you that she was considering taking him back so that you would see that you're no better. So that _she_ would see that you're no better. It didn't work, Hyde. She never considered taking back Kelso unless she knew you were around. She never equated your cheating with his cheating. She forgave you because she thinks you're better than he is." She sighed, her eyes still on the couch. Slowly her sadness turned to anger. "And then you turned her down for a date with some other girl!"

"Well, it's all your fault anyway!" Hyde stood up and paced back and forth behind the couch, emotions warring inside of him.

"Hyde?" Donna still sat on the couch, head in her hands.

"What?" Hyde practically snarled at her. She flinched back a little at his tone but held her ground.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I almost ruined everything. Look. You have to go to Jackie, and you have to understand that she has done nothing wrong. All she ever wanted was for you to prove that you loved her…and you failed. You're the one that did something wrong, first when you slept with that nurse and then today when you went out with Raquel. Please just go to her and…" She shrugged her shoulders. "Show her you can be what she needs. You can trust her Hyde, and you need to let her know that you'll try."

Hyde stared at her for a moment, nodded his head, and set his sunglasses down on the coffee table.

Steven walked out of the basement to go find Jackie.

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Jackie stood in front of the mirror in the room she shared with Donna staring at herself in her blue knit bikini. If just going to Steven wasn't going to work, she was going to have to entice him. Show him what he was giving up by choosing to go out with some skanky, dirty looking blonde whore. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she willed herself not to cry. Puffy eyes and smeared mascara weren't going to convince Steven to love her.

She sighed in the mirror. It was true that she didn't believe that Steven's cheating was as bad as Michael's. It may have hurt her more, but that was because it came from someone she had loved and respected instead of the pretty boy toy she liked to have around. But whenever Michael had cheated, he had been the one begging to have her back. She had never had to put on a bikini to convince him to come home. Could it be that Steven just didn't love her as much as she loved him? Could it be that he didn't love her as much as Michael loved her? She shuddered at the thought, but couldn't keep the tears out of her eyes this time. For the first time in her life, Jackie Burkhardt felt less than perfect. Ugly. Undesirable. Unworthy. She put her head in her hands and cried, putting off Operation: Drive Steven Crazy until tomorrow.

She was curled up on Donna's bed, sobbing in her bikini, when Steven walked into the room. Immediately, his heart when out to her, and all he wanted to do was hold her. Slowly, he crept over to the bed and laid a hand on her mostly naked back. Jackie jumped at his touch, pulling herself up and trying to fix her makeup before she turned around and saw Steven staring at her. Her eyes were full of confusion as they met his, but when she saw nothing but love, she couldn't stop a new volley of sobs. As she turned away from him again, she felt his weight on the edge of the bed and his arms drawing her into his chest. Too weak and tired and lonely to resist, Jackie let herself be hugged as she continued to sob in Steven's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Jackie." His voice was low and raspy in her ear, and, as always, it sent shivers down her spine. He could see the goose bumps rising on her flesh as he continued to whisper into her ear. "I love you so much, and I'm so sorry I hurt you. Before and today. I'm sorry I left you today. I was so angry, but I know now that it wasn't you I was angry with. I would never choose anyone else over you." The lack of eye contact made it easier for Hyde to let go of his inhibitions and just let the words flow, and he continued to whisper into her ear as her sobs lessened.

Jackie raised her head from his shoulder to look into his eyes, uncovered and radiating every emotion he felt. She couldn't help but smile at him. Clearing her throat slightly, she whispered, "I thought I was going to have to seduce you," gesturing to her bikini.

Hyde grinned and raised an eyebrow. "We don't have to cancel that part, you know." He rubbed his hands in circles down her back, feeling the soft, warm skin he thought he had given up forever.

Arching her back slightly into the movement, Jackie smiled up at him before she remembered why he was here. His hands stilled when he saw the smile on her face replaced by a look of apprehension and fear.

"Steven." They locked eyes for a long moment before she began talking. "You really hurt me with that nurse and then with that girl." She pressed a finger to his lips when he tried to speak. "I understand. I know you think it's stupid, but I really do understand you. I know how hard it is to trust people when…" Jackie trailed off, making a random gesture with her hands. Hyde stared at her in wonder, fully realizing for the first time how many experiences they had shared in the home department. His eyes widened further when he thought about all of the other times Jackie had been betrayed by Kelso and then by him. "I love you, Steven, I really do. It's just that sometimes…you…get your head up your own ass." The words were spoken truthfully, but without malice, and she smirked a little as she looked at him. "We have a lot in common. I know you know it. Sometimes it seems like you want to ignore all that, like you want to see me as a stupid rich bitch instead of a girl who has been through so many of the same experiences you have. I mean…we both sleep on military cots at our best friend's houses. How many people can say that?" She shrugged her shoulders and smiled, but he saw how the wound from her lack of family still ran deep.

"Jackie…" His eyes sparkled with a few tears that he wouldn't let fall as he pushed her into the bed underneath him and kissed her, letting her feel how he understood her words. Smiling underneath him, Jackie returned his kiss, full of love and a common understanding that had never before been present. Before it became too heated, she moved to sit up.

"I have one more thing I need to say, Steven." Hyde nodded at her. "I'm sorry, too. I'm sorry for every time I used Kelso to make you jealous during our relationship, I'm sorry for that incident at Eric's grandpa's funeral, I'm sorry for giving you a reason not to trust me. I'm really sorry that I told you he was a choice this summer. Because he wasn't, and you have to believe…" Hyde silenced her with another kiss before speaking.

"I just talked to Donna. She told me. And even if she hadn't told me, I would believe you. I…I trust you." His eyes widened in surprise as he realized that he meant what he said. A dopey smile found his lips. "I promise I'll try harder to remember that. I'll never hurt you again, Jackie

This time it was Jackie who kissed him, slowly sliding her tongue into his mouth as she pulled him down on top of her. Their lips clashed together for many long moments before Jackie pulled away briefly.

"I was so afraid I would never kiss you again," she panted as her lips moved down his neck. She ran her hands down his toned stomach in order to grab his shirt and pull it over his head in one quick motion. "Or touch you like this," she whispered as her fingernails scratched lightly down his back before forcing his body down on top of hers. "Or feel your naked skin on mine…" They both moaned at the contact.

"Jackie…God, I love you." Their lips met again ferociously as Hyde worked his hands under her bikini top, feeling her nipples poke into his hands as her breath quickened. Not to be out done, Jackie ran her hands down his naked chest and stomach and inside his pants where she wrapped her fingers around his erect shaft. Hyde buried his head in her neck for a moment before moving his mouth to her chest and skimming one hand down her body and underneath her bikini bottoms. He laughed a little as he slid one finger inside her and raised his mouth to her ear to whisper, "You look totally hot in this bikini, by the way."

As a second finger glided inside of her, she arched off the bed, and at that very moment Donna and Eric walked into the room.

"I'm really glad you guys are back together and all…but GET OFF MY BED!" She pulled out a spray bottle and began squirting the half naked couple until they ran out of the room. She turned to Eric with a smile. "I was so afraid I would never again know the joy of ruining Hyde and Jackie's make out sessions." Eric laughed and pushed her onto the slightly damp bed, covering her mouth and her body with his own. As they kissed each other longingly—ignoring all thoughts of college and heart attacks—everything was right in the world.


End file.
